As India navigates uncertain world, Netaji’s policy ‘more relevant than ever’, says CDS

New Delhi: As India navigates a polycentric, unstable, uncertain global disorder, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s policy of assertive diplomacy and strategic realism is more relevant than ever before, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said on Friday.

Delivering a lecture at JNU on the occasion of Netaji’s 129th birth anniversary, he said traditional colonialism was replaced by neo-colonialism, and now society is “entering an era of cognitive colonialism” which targets intellectual and psychological domains.

General Chauhan said he has coined the phrase “cognitive colonialism”.

In his address, the chief of defence staff (CDS) lauded Bose’s qualities of leadership. Apart from being a soldier statesman, he was also a politico-military leader, he said.

Netaji had a strategic foresight and a vision to understand global power dynamics of his time, the general said.

“Even today, as India navigates this polycentric, unstable, uncertain global disorder, Netaji’s policy of assertive diplomacy and strategic realism is more relevant than ever before,” Gen Chuahan said.

The government is celebrating “Parakram Diwas” from January 23-25 to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Besides the main event hosted at Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair) on Friday, events will be held at 13 other iconic locations across the country associated with Bose.

Gen Chauhan said Netaji “created a government, built an army, planned campaigns, negotiated alliances, managed logistics for that army, demonstrating a close relationship between a political vision, astute diplomacy, and military operations”.

“Bose was a military leader, not because he donned a military uniform. He was a military leader because he led by personal example.

“He resigned from the Indian Civil Service, underwent multiple prison sentences, a house arrest in Calcutta (Kolkata), travelled incognito all the way to Afghanistan, and from there on to Germany,” the CDS said.

Netaji undertook that “epic and perilous journey” in a submarine from Germany, all with the aim of liberating India, he said.

“In my view, he was a true scholar statesman, and an inspiring military leader... From Singapore in 1943, he gave a call for total mobilisation, when he said ‘Delhi Chalo’. That call aroused nationalist consciousness and exhorted all Indians to fight for India’s freedom,” Gen Chauhan said.